Nacala coal hub open...

Nacala Coal Terminal officially opened in mid-May, providing the capacity to handle more exports from the Moatize Basin when mining companies are ready to make use of it.

The terminal has been built at Nacala-a-Velha, opposite the established port of Nacala in Nampula Province. It is expected to serve about 150 vessels a year, and has storage capacity for 1 Mt. The terminal and railway that connect it to the mines are operated by Nacala Integrated Logistics Corridor (CLN), which is owned by Vale Moçambique, Japanese firm Mitsui and Mozambique’s state-owned transport utility Portos e Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique.

The combined cost of building the terminal and constructing/rehabilitating sections of the 912 km railway connecting it to the mines was US$4.5B, including the 200 km section of railway that passes through Malawi. Vale CEO MuriloFerreira said that this made it the firm’s biggest ever investment outside Brazil. The terminal and railway are expected to provide 4,000 jobs, down from the 10,000 employed during the construction phase, which began in 2012.

The railway and terminal will have annual handling capacity of 18 Mt from next year, which Vale expects will be fully utilised. In a statement, Vale said: “Moatize’s coal is well-positioned internationally to supply, at a competitive cost, the markets of Asia, Europe and even Brazil.”

It is expected that 22 coal trains a day will operate on the line from June onwards, in addition to other freight and passenger services. Each will have 120 wagons and four GE locomotives. The US firm has supplied 85 locomotives and 1,962 wagons to CLN.

Read this item in fullThis complete item is approximately 300 words in length, and appeared in the May/June 2017 issue of Bulk Materials International, on page 4. To access this issue download the PDF here.

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